Stanford neurobiologist says there is no such thing as 'free will'

American Thinker ^ | 10/21/2023 | Eric Utter

[SeekAndFind]

After more than 40 years of studying humans and other primates, Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky has reached the conclusion that virtually all human behavior is as far beyond our conscious control as the division of cells or the beating of our hearts. (Of course, he had to.)

Therefore, we mustn’t harshly judge such heretofore disdained folks as drunk drivers, serial criminals, Hamas terrorists, and those who bring 29 items to the “8 items or less” checkout lane.

Sapolsky said:

“The world is really screwed up and made much, much more unfair by the fact that we reward people and punish people for things they have no control over. We’ve got no free will. Stop attributing stuff to us that isn’t there.”

Yes, this screwed up world would be a much, much better place if we stopped rewarding and punishing people based on their behavior. Incredibly, Sapolsky is a MacArthur “genius” grant winner, proving that the people who bestow that award are utterly clueless. (Through no fault of their own, of course!) if (publir_show_ads) { document.write("" + ""); }

Indeed, the vast majority of neuroscientists and philosophers believe humans have at least some degree of free will. As do most of the rest of us. But perhaps we have no choice in the matter.

Sapolsky has a new book out, titled, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will. (I bet he just had to write it!) Doesn’t sound much like “science” to me. But maybe we should ask Dr. Fauci.

The book chronicles neurochemical influences that contribute to human behaviors, and analyzes time, short or long, before we do what we do. Sapolsky had previously written a bestseller called, “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst,” which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and received other accolades.

[aspasia]

It’s really that simple. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to grasp.

Please don't condescend.

[M Kehoe]

Today Sapolsky, I chose not to kill.

Tomorrow I will have the same choice.

5.56mm

[NoLibZone]

Then:

Merrit doesn’t exist.
Racism doesn’t exist.

Even my typos can now be excused.

[DoughtyOne]

It’s hard to fathom how lost in space some folks are.

[aspasia]

Your idea of "free" is one kind among others.

Agreed, to be "free" means to be free of something. You say that something is the "'hardware' we were born with and the vagaries of the environment that surrounds us."

But free can also mean to be free to act--particularly to act contrarily--while living in this natural hardware and environment.

Examples of this kind of freedom have us free to act contrary to any rewards and punishments designed to fix us.

This view of freedom is very important for the idea of freedom of speech. Government rewards and punishments applied to our speech would be the natural first steps toward the suppression of this view of "free."

[ShadowAce]

Hope he was right.

There is no "Hope" about it. He is definitely correct.

Read the book of Job to see how God and Satan interact.

[GMThrust]

Now I see where you are coming from. Consciousness development. I immediately came up with an infant. Does the infant have free will? That goes along with the Bible telling us that there is an age of accountability (when we know right from wrong-we develop or are at the point of reasoning right from wrong).

[Getready]

I wonder what brain cells forced him to that conclusion.

[UCANSEE2]

Tis The Set Of The Sail — Or — One Ship Sails East
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

But to every mind there openeth,
A way, and way, and away,
A high soul climbs the highway,
And the low soul gropes the low,
And in between on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth,
A high way and a low,
And every mind decideth,
The way his soul shall go.

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
‘Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
‘Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

[Patriot777]

…”humans and other primates”…
Therein lies his issue, being submerged in the gloppy sewage of anthropology and that that same blob of sewage can, over millions 😆of years, eventually come down from the trees and sport a pair of skinny jeans, a man bag by day and climb back in trees by night to feast on fruit and watch Naked and Afraid on his smartphone.

[Patriot777]

“He chose…poorly.”

[PeterPrinciple]

Our free will is not absolute.

Yes it is subject to certain things, like genetics, imprinting, situations ect.

And of course there is God’s will.

Our free will is not absolute

[21twelve]

“As we journey along through life,
‘Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.”

I like that. While we may not have been able to chose our early nurture (families) or our early environment, one can make decisions later on that will sometimes allow them to overcome those short-comings. Choosing the right friends comes to mind. The right spouse, etc.

[muir_redwoods]

They were $.35/ pack when I quit.

[Palio di Siena]

Still doesn’t explain why I married the first one.